The Rocket's Red Glare (Layout Revisions)

Hey David,

I gave you two options with the text on the back cover. I wasn't totally happy with the look of centering the first paragraph, so I gave you a copy with that section left justified. If you have a picture in mind for the backcover, I would be happy to insert it for you. But for the meantime, I just left the lower left corner blank in a roughly portrait size rectangle.

Rocket's Red Glare (Layout)

Hi David,

Here are some options for the layout of the cover. 

I took the liberty of adding the title to the cover, because it was feeling a little incomplete without it.

Feel free to pick and choose before sending them on to the publisher.

Final Art for Rocket's Red Glare

This is a recent illustration I did for my friend David Peak for the cover of his upcoming novel, Rocket's Red Glare.

David's story is set in a colony of bacteria that live on the surface of a quarter.

My preliminary thumbnails can be seen in previous posts. For a series of images I took documenting the process of painting this piece, please check out my Paintings in Progress blog.

Rocket's Red Glare (Final Art in Progress)

Hi David,

Although this isn't finished, I wanted to get something out to you this week.

This image is rough, but shows the direction that I am taking the painting in. I hope to have all the edges smoothed out by this friday.

Final Pencils (Rocket's Red Glare)

Hi David,

Here are two studies of the city that will be growing off of your quarter. The first at roughly the same scale I gave you in the original sketch, and the second, a slightly enlarged version with a little more room for building detail. I am going to play with these for another day or two, then my next step will be to render the final artwork in acrylic, in graphic style of the artwork I did for Ghost Factory.


Little City


Big City

Rocket's Red Glare (roughs)

Hi David,

Here is my first crack at the cover image for "Rocket's Red Glare." I have worked off of the original idea you suggested (the image of a city growing on the face of a quarter,) and stuck to a pretty literal interpretation of the material.

I began with a drawing of a quarter as seen from a low angle.

Next, I created a generic city texture, trying to match the angle of the first sketch, and leaving all the detail for a later stage.


And, finally, a composite of the two images in photoshop.



Here is a slightly lighter rendering, letting the line work tell more of the story.

This is, of course, just a sketch. I will be doing a lot of tinkering with the layout of the city, adding detail and adjusting the scale of buildings relative to the quarter.
The challenge in rendering the final piece will be to make both the city, and the quarter details visible, without loosing the quick read of the image in visual clutter. 

Please let me know if you have any suggestions as I go into a second series of sketches. I am looking forward to adding some recognizable building types (banks and churches) as well as surface detail such as water towers, billboards, maybe even some cars and trees. I should have something new for you to look at by this time next week. 

Logo Sketches (26 Letterpress)

Hey Dad,

Here are some sketches for the "26 Letterpress" Logo. You are free to use these JPEGs as is, but I am thinking I will make something a little more polished using this same approach, if you think these are going in the right direction.